Help I am trying to trace a Series 3A landy

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Originally Posted by Selsi

It was a 1973 LWB,2.25L manual, Serial Number 97300001A, Engine number 13 00333A.
[The short wheel base one had the serial number 97300001B, (If I remember correctly; can't find what the engine number was though). Its NSW rego was GKF???]

David McKendry, the LROCV Membership Officer, helped to track down the person we sold it to. Many thanks..

I will try and post photos when we get hold of it.

Need the good mechanic to put it together though

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thanks,

the colour appears to be the correct colour reffered to as Cambridge blue..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Blue_(Colour)


You should write a short article though its history worth knowing..

ta

Pics of it now would be terrifiic:)

The restoration begins:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Selsi

It was a 1973 LWB,2.25L manual, Serial Number 97300001A, Engine number 13 00333A.
[The short wheel base one had the serial number 97300001B, (If I remember correctly; can't find what the engine number was though). Its NSW rego was GKF???]

David McKendry, the LROCV Membership Officer, helped to track down the person we sold it to. Many thanks..

I will try and post photos when we get hold of it.

Need the good mechanic to put it together though

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Can you reiterate what is so special about these vehicles because I am still a bit confused. You indicated that these are 1973 series 3 prototype vehicles but I owned a PMC built series 3 88 that was built before September 1972 - so well before these prototype vehicles were built. I know where my old series 3 still resides and attached is a pic of its compliance plate and vehicle taken about 12 months ago.

Garry

Garry

Prior to these two LR's being built, all landrovers built at PMC were from ALL components manufactured in England.
These 2 vehicles had their chassis built here, fron Australian steel, rather than having them imported from England.
They were built to test the chassis jigs and then driven around NSW and ? to test the chassis ( and cabin fit) out. On return to PMC they were then stripped down and re-measured to make sure that they still met the specs. They were then rebuilt and were purchased by my father in law ( JO Martin - MD Pressed Metal) for his property at Tarana, NSW). We drove them for any years there. Unfortunately he contracted lung cancer as a result of too many cigarettes, as a Captain in WW2 in New Guinea and free cigs!!!

On his death I was bequethed the vehicle which my son drove for about 2 years before working OS. It was then sold and now has been refound!!!!

You mave have a series III built prior, but it would have a chassis that was imported from Engalnd rather than made here in Australia.

As I had the privilege of talking to my father in law about LR's I know all that he did to promote and support them.
I know that he took on Toyota when they advertised in the press that their Land Cruisers built the Snowies !!!!! BULL****!!!!!(Sorry about that, moderator).
He pointed ouit that the SMA had many hundreds of LR's but only a handfull of LC's (and only) in the later years!!!!!

But he really believed in the fact that the Land Rover was a better vehicle.

And it was an IS!!!

Also he was the father of the much alingned P76. He had a Targa Florio which was a flag ship vehicle. I had one also. But my claim to fame was that I drove for some time a FORCE 7 version which not too many people can claim to have done. There were so many inovations that were introduced with it like gas struts, hatch back, and, and.

I hope this helps.

I get passionate about therse things.............Come on Aussie.,.;.;;.;;

Thanks for that - certainly fills in the blanks.

Garry

Was the Force 7 that you drove on tradies or was it registered? what colour?

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Originally Posted by Selsi

Garry

Prior to these two LR's being built, all landrovers built at PMC were from ALL components manufactured in England.
.......

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I don't believe this can be correct. From quite early Series 1 production, PMC was assembling CKD Landrovers. But early on parts that could be made locally were. This included electrical equipment and tyres. But at least by Series 2a some panels were being produced by PMC, and the 2a military chassis was apparently developed by PMC and only later produced for the One Ton in the UK.

However, the Series 3 introduced pressed chassis rails on the lwb, and this may have been the innovation referred to. Or it may have simply been that these represented the change of chassis/panels from the 2a, with full CKD kits being used to produce Series 3s until tooling was completed (and tested with these two vehicles).

John

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Originally Posted by Selsi

Now we need a good mechanic as it is in bits. Does anyone know of a good LR person who can put the engine / gearbox back together and give it a good check over? They should, preferably, be in the Lithgow / Oberon / Bathurst area but can go to the Mountains.

Many thanks

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Where in the Blue Mountains?

It is a shame the LWB and SWB could not be reunited and kept together.

Uncle Ho
The Force 7's that I drove were bright orange and a sickening Lime green.
They were both registered for the road. The lime green one was a bit different in that it had a 5 speed ZF manual gearbox and most of the trips driven were at night between the farm at Tarana (NSW) and the home garage in Gordon (Sydney suburb). Perhaps just as well as it was a horrible colour!! The orange one was an automatic; from memory it was a modified Borg Warner type 35 that was used in the Rover 3500. Both cars were the 4.2 litre V8 and were fitted with LSD's. The orange one we drove in the daytime a few times around Sydney, albeit early weekend mornings.

Some of the other unique cars driven....
A "Twini Mini"with an engine in the front and they back. Went like the smoke!!!! Would have made a fantastic hill climb car.
Then there was a 4 wheel drive Moke called either"a "Mule"or an "Ant" depending on the version. I think they were being developed for the military, especially for air transport. Great fun to drive especially in mud. If it got bogged a couple of strong people could wheel it out like a wheel barrow. It never went into production though. Pity.
There was a special Landrover, based on the short wheel base, that was developed as a mobile radio base station for the Army. It had 24v electrics and looked more like a Jeep that a conventional LR. (Open front mud guards, I remember). I know that several were built but I have never seen one apart from the original one that did the testing up at the Tarana farm.
Unfortunately we never took photos of these vehicles and even if there were some they would have been photgraphs and not digital so have got lost over time.
I had an Austin 1800 with a fully tuned MGB engine that would scare the hell out of Torana XU1's. Not so much in top speed, but on the corners it was like driving on rails...
Then there were the rally Cooper S's of Timo Makinen and Paddy Hopkirk; absolutely incredible.

John

Somewhere I had a photo of this Land rover sitting in front of the chassis that were imported from England at the time. Some even had engines and gearboxes fitted. Others were bare frames. All of the panels were pressed at Enfield from Alcan aluminium. I can remember seeing the chassis being assembled, so I can assure you that it was the first fully made here. That's why this vehicle and its short wheel base 'sister' were so special to my father in law and were kept by him. Certain body parts were imported as they were especially made for LR's like door hingesand plastic mouldings. Of course all of the mechanicals were.